FROM WAR TO REDISTRIBUTION: POLITICAL REAL IGNMENTIN COLOMBIA

Abstract

In less than a decade, Colombia has undergone a process of dealignment and subsequent political realignment. For years, political identities were structured around the armed conflict: the left associated with negotiation and the right with a hardline approach. The 2016 peace accord abruptly deactivated this axis, and voters reoriented their priorities toward the economy and redistribution, while the parties remained anchored to the conflict cleavage. The resulting representation gap opened space in 2022 for an anti-establishment candidate who placed redistribution at the center. Three years later, an asymmetric realignment is evident: the left has organized programmatically around redistribution, while the right lacks definition on this axis and coheres around opposition to Gustavo Petro.